This morning as I go through the issue of divorce again, there are references to he and she, the husband putting away his wife, or the wife who is leaving, please, have enough maturity to know that it is simply a situation that it is speaking about, and that it can be reversed; it doesn't have to be just her leaving him. It could be him leaving her. I think that you have enough maturity to recognize that when it talks about a spouse, it talks about either spouse. It simply gives that example. So I'm not getting down on her or getting down on him, it's simply the way the text is written, and I trust that you will have enough sophistication to reverse the roles if necessary.

Um, we have, I have enjoyed, really, the whole series on your questions about divorce and remarriage and especially singleness and marriage. This is a little bit different, and as I said, I'm sensitive to its subject matter. Um, there is certainly nothing wrong with being single, as we've seen. Paul calls it a gift. Jesus said it was a gift. Now, I know many single people who say, "I don't want that gift (light laughter)." And that's okay, cause you probably don't have it, then. Marriage is also a gift, and I've met married people who said, "I wish it didn't have this gift now." Both being single and being married are gifts from God. And there's no problem with them. But the problem arises when married people try to act like single people and single people try to act like married people and none of them are content. When you have a married person who now wants freedom again and longs for the old days and wants to take off his ring in public so no one will know, so that he can flirt and long for that freedom of being alone and searching, that's when the problems arise. There was a song that was written in the seventies that captures the thought of our culture. I'm sure you'll recognize it when I get through a few words.

"The problem is all inside your head, she said to me.
The answer is easy if you take it logically.
I'd like to help you in your struggle to be free.
There must be fifty ways to leave your lover."

Member that song? Paul Simon. And the chorus goes,
"You just slip out the back, Jack. (laughter)
Make a new plan, Stan.
You don't need to be coy, Roy.
Just get yourself free.
Hop on the bus, Gus." It's corny (laughter).
"You don't need to discuss much.
Just drop off the key, Lee.
And get yourself free."

Married people wanting to be single. Of course, when you have single people wanting to be married, you have the problems that our society has, too. Single people who want to try each other out before they get married. Live together sexually. I was given a newspaper article and I'm grateful for someone who passed it down to me. It's an L.A. Times syndicate newspaper column called Single File. It is sort of a Dear Abby for singles, except this is Dear Susan. And, one of the, uh, readers writes in: "Dear Susan, one of your readers invited men to give their perspective on sex and love." Now here's his perspective. "As for me, I see no incongruity in enjoying a sexual relationship with any number of willing women, regardless of the degree of my affection, since I see no reason why sex cannot be enjoyed without friendship or love. If society would break it's chains of superstition and folly, some kind of program could avoid the social diseases and unwanted conception." Boy, I'd like to see him try. And this, listen to this, "It is a sin against nature to deny the well springs of pleasure, especially to those who appreciate and thirst for it with a pure heart (light laughter)." Now, that's his opinion.

Here's the expert advice. "Dear Dr. S.L." That's his initials, "Sin is such a personal judgement; one man's meat is another man's poison. And that's not my department. The main thing to me is that no woman is hurt by misreading your intentions. If she agrees with your philosophy, no harm done." I doubt it. "The second concern is sexually-transmitted disease. With the new variations going on today, careful screening before each contact is a must." She concludes by saying, "You have your idea of sin, but mine is a person looking in the mirror and not liking what he or she sees. Feeling good about your sex life is top priority in my book."

When we live in a society like we do where single people want to live like married people and married people want to be single again and live like single people, the result is what you see today. Rampant people, rampant living together. Rampant sexual promiscuity and rampant divorce rate. And that's what we've been talking about last week and this week, is divorce, the divorce rate and what God says about it. God did not paint a confusing picture as to what His will on divorce is. Sin has entered society to the extent that it has clouded over the simple teaching of the word and thus people are confused. But God did not have a tough time getting His point across. It is very simple. I believe it is very easy. I don't believe there are lots of shades of gray in it. And I hope after these three studies, you will see exactly what God says. And because this is such a sensitive issue, opinions do not matter- my opinion or anybody else. I seek to throw my opinion out the door number one, so I can't be blamed for what this study teaches and number two, so that knowing God's will, we can live in the light of it. I am sensitive to the fact that, in discussing this issue, I am opening up wounds in some people's lives. I recognize that. That is not my intention. Especially those people who are suffering the pain, now, of realizing they have sinned against God's word, they have gone against His ideals, and then the big question in their minds is, "Can I remarry somebody now? Do I have the freedom to get married again?" That's really a big issue. We'll discuss that really much more in depth next week. And some, the answer will be yes, you can remarry. And to some, the answer will be no, you cannot. But we'll leave that for next week. I wanna encourage you though to hang in there for all three of these studies: last week, this week and next week, to get the whole picture put together.
The bottom line issue, please listen and please understand, the bottom line issue, before we go any further, is are you willing to obey and to please God, no matter what you find out is God's will? That's the bottom line issue. No matter what you find out the scripture says for you to do or not to do, are you willing to obey and to please God? That will determine the satisfaction and quality of your life from here for the rest of your life. When people come in for counseling and they ask all sorts of questions, the premarital's ask, "Is it okay for me to marry this guy?" Or "Is it okay for me to marry this girl?" Or someone might come in and say, "Is it okay now for me to divorce my husband based on this ground?" Or someone will say, "Am I free to remarry this person?" My question to them is, "Before I answer your question, you must answer this question: Whatever you find out is God's will, are you willing to do it?" because that will determine whether this counseling session lasts five minutes or five hours. If you say, "No, I am not willing," or, "I am willing to obey God as long as I can do this," the counseling is now over. Why go on? If it's, "Yes, I am willing to obey God and please Him no matter what," then we can work with that person, love that person, encourage that person into what is the truth.

Now, we opened up to Deuteronomy 24 because we're gonna eventually land there as I said. I want to paint a picture to you of what the people of Jesus' day had been influenced by and what was their thinking. Remember Jesus walked the earth 2,000 years ago, and the setting and the philosophy and the political economic atmosphere was Greco-Roman, was from the Greek and Roman period. That was the influence of the world at that time. Now, the Greek's relationships and divorce was a mess. The Greek's biggest disease in their culture was the way they viewed women. Woman was a thing. A woman was less than a thing. In fact, in a marriage relationship, the wife was to be kept in seclusion. It was good that she even be seen in public or eat with her husband. But, a husband could go out and have other relationships while he was in his marriage. It was accepted by the society. In fact, it was expected of a man to do that. The Greeks had a philosophy. They said, "Every husband should have at least three women in his life. First, a mistress for his companionship. Second of all, a concubine for his sexual pleasure. And third of all, he must have a wife to bear his legitimate children and to be a guardian of the home." So, wives, if you lived at that time period in a Greek culture, your role as a wife would be seclusion. You would be one of many women, and your job is to scrub house and watch the kids that are legitimately born to your husband. Heh, I'm glad we don't live then. Socrates, we've all heard of him. Do you know what his philosophy was? He said, "A wife is someone you should trust with the most important things of life. But you should talk to her the least of all." I know a lot of men who follow his advice. Jim Dobson says you can always tell in a restaurant who's married and who's not. The married couple sit over and, and never talk to each other. The ones who are not married are talking up a storm and communicating. Beyond that, in the city of Corinth was a temple- the Temple of Aphrodite. The Temple of Aphrodite was run by a thousand whores, a thousand temple prostitutes who would come down, sell their bodies at night, collect the revenue and fund the temple. It was such a big thing that the saying went around the Greek world that says, "Not every man can afford a trip to Corinth." In other words, the whole marriage relationships in the Greek society was based, number one, on a wife being secluded, out of the way. She had to be kept morally pure while the husband could mess around and it was expected for him to have other women outside of marriage. There was no legal divorce proceedings in Greece or in the Greek influence. A man simply had to have two witnesses and dismiss her, and she was gone.

Now, the Romans weren't a whole lot better, although the Romans, who took over Greek Empire, started out good. There was a tight family unit. In fact, did you know that the first 500 years of the Roman Empire, there is not one single, not one single recorded case of divorce? In 500 years. But, although Rome took over Greece, in effect Greece took over Rome morally. Rome started taking on the very, uh, same influences that the Greek Empire had. It took on the same kind of lax morals. Divorce became so rampant among the Romans that one of the Roman historians said, "Wives were beginning to identify the years of their lives by the names of their husbands." You know, instead of 1973, 1974, 1975, it's, "Well, let's see, what year was that? That was Peter, then there was John, then there was Frank, then there was George, then there was Harold." According to the Roman records, there were some people that had twenty-eight divorces. Twenty-eight divorces. They were numbering their years by their husbands. Um, there was a Roman joke actually that went around. It said that for a Roman husband, the two happiest days of his life is the day that he marries her and the day that he buries her. That's how horrible marriage and divorce relationships were in the Greek and the Roman period, which was the backdrop for the time Jesus came on the scene.
Now a third group we need to talk about, and that's why we land in Deuteronomy 24, is the Jewish nation, in which Jesus entered the scene. He was their Messiah. The Jews held marriage in high esteem. It was a sacred duty for every person to marry. In fact, of the seven people that some Jews had a list of seven people that would not enter heaven. First on the list was a man, Jewish man, who had no wife. Second of all was a Jewish woman who had no children. Divorce was hated by the Jews at the beginning. In fact, one of the Rabbis said, "The very altar itself in Jerusalem weeps and sheds tears when an Israelite divorces the wife of his youth." But there was a problem. The problem is, do you remember how the marriages were set up in Israel? They were prearranged, member? Remember, the parents selected the mates. That is, you could be three to five years old and be engaged. You live on one side of the street, other people live on the other side of the street. Daddy's walking out one day, he has a five-year-old little boy. Daddy sees cute little girl on the other side of the street and says, "Hey my name is so-and-so, great. Hey, you have a cute little daughter, I have a cute little son. Let's marry them. How's that? We'll get them engaged. How bout it? Good." They were engaged from that early age. Now, the younger generations were not, were starting to dislike this, obviously. I mean, he gets to be fifteen years and he thinks, "Dad, I'm stuck with her. You married me to this thing. I don't wanna marry her!" There was some tension and, so as the centuries went on, there was some problems with verses in the Bible as the Jews would interpret them. And one of the problem passages is Deuteronomy 24. In fact, the divorce, remarriage issue centered for the Jews upon this passage because it is the only passage in the Old Testament that deals with divorce procedure. Let's read it.

"If a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce," by the way I am reading the New International Version this morning, "gives it to her and sends her from his house, and if after she leaves his house she becomes the wife of another man, and her second husband dislikes her and writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, or if he dies, then her first husband, who divorced her, is not allowed to marry her again after she has become or has been defiled. That would be detestable in the eyes of the Lord. Do not bring sin upon the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance." Many of the rabbis were unclear as to what this whole passage meant. Because of that, two schools of thought, two religious interpretations of the divorce and remarriage issue surfaced. There were two prominent rabbis. There were many of them but two on this issue. One rabbi, Shammai and second rabbi, Hillel. The reason I'm saying this and the reason this is important is this is the entire background to Jesus' confrontation with the Pharisees on this issue. The background is what we are talking about. Rabbi Shammai was conservative. He said, "Now this passage of scripture where it says, uh, 'a woman becomes displeasing because he finds something indecent,' this must strictly deal with unchastity and adultery. That's what it means." Well, there was another school, the school of Hillel who said, "No, I don't interpret it that way, Shammai. I see a whole different set of rules going on here." And Rabbi Hillel gave this passage the widest possible meaning. What he meant by it is that if a husband finds something he doesn't like about his wife, he should write her a bill of divorce." And he wrote a list of things down why a man can divorce his wife. Number one, if she spoils his dinner by putting too much salt in it. This is in the records. That's grounds for divorce. If she spun around in public joyfully, grounds for divorce. If she had seen publicly with her hair down instead of bound tightly as the Jewish women did, grounds for divorce. If she was seen speaking publicly to another man in public, grounds for divorce, even if it was the grocer. If she was saying anything bad in his presence about his parents, grounds for divorce. "Hey, I don't like what your mom said the other night." (Hits table with fist) "I got grounds." In fact, he said if your wife is a brawling woman, that is if she speaks too loud and the neighbor can hear, grounds for divorce. Along that line of interpretation came a rabbi, Rabbi Akiva, who is also very famous, who went on to say, "Not only does that mean, this passage mean what Hillel said, but it means that even if the husband finds another gal who is more beautiful, or whom he likes better than his wife, that's grounds for divorce and remarriage." Now, which do you think was the most popular interpretation that the men wanted to follow? Society grabbed the interpretation by Rabbi Hillel. At the time of Jesus Christ, the general consensus among the Jews, the Pharisees, the teachers of the law, was the interpretation of divorce for any reason at all. Any time his hus- the husband finds something weird (snaps finger) bill of divorce. That was the general belief by the religious system of the Jews at the time of Jesus. It was a no-fault divorce. In other words, you don't really have to prove grounds. You just get a couple witnesses, trump up some charge, and you're done with it. By the way, we have today in the states, what is called the Clause for Mutual Incompatibility. That is, when a husband and wife do not get along for whatever reason, mutual incompatibility is the out for divorce; it is grounds for divorce. There are only as far as I, in my research have found, seven states in the union that allow divorce for mutual incompatibility as the primary grounds- New Mexico is one of them. So we're surrounded with that kind of mentality, much like the wrong interpretation of Hillel at the time, of uh, Jesus.
Now, with that, I want you, this is the background of Matthew 19. I want you to look at that again. Please turn. Keep a finger, though, in Deuteronomy 24, cause we're going to go back to it. Matthew, Chapter 19, verse 1. "When Jesus had finished saying these things, he left Galilee and went into the region of Judea to the other side of the Jordan. Large crowds followed him, and he healed them there. Some Pharisees came to him to test him," and notice the question, "They asked, 'Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?'" That is what they believed. The question to Jesus is, "Are you siding with Rabbi Hillel or Rabbi Shammai? Do you take the strict interpretation of Deuteronomy 24 or the lax interpretation like all of us? For any and every reason?" Now Jesus answers them, first of all, by taking them back to the beginning and showing them God's original design for marriage. And we covered that last week. He says, "Haven't you read that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female and said for this reason a man will leave his father and mother be united to his wife and the two will become one flesh'? So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore, what God has joined, let not man separate." The Greek word is let not man divorce. "Why then," verse 7, this important, "did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?" Moses never commanded it, as we're gonna see. "Jesus replied, 'Moses permitted you to divorce your wife because your hearts were hard.'" They interpreted Deuteronomy 24 as not only divorce for any and every reason, but a commandment by Moses to divorce their wives. Jesus says, "Wrong. He regulated it, He allowed it because your hearts were hard, but it was not this way from the beginning. I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness and marries another woman commits adultery." Now the disciples understood exactly what Jesus meant. They said, "Well then it's better for a dude to stay single." I mean, why get married if you're gonna have to be stuck with that woman the rest of your life and there's no possible grounds of getting out of it except for adultery. They realized that marriage was the commitment that God intended it to be because Jesus said so.

Back to Deuteronomy 24. That's the background of it. Now we have to decide, according to the text, what it means. First of all, we saw last week a principle in the Old Testament that God hates divorce. Because of that, you will never ever ever find a passage of scripture where God commands or encourages anyone to get a divorce. Ever. It would be totally inconsistent for God to say, "If you ever find something that you don't like about your wife, you can dump her and marry somebody else." It would be inconsistent with Malachi 2, it would be inconsistent with Matthew 5, Matthew 19, Luke 16, Mark 10, uh 1 Corinthians 7. It would be totally inconsistent with the rest of scripture. As you see in these four verses in Deuteronomy, Chapter 24, divorce is not required at all. It's not a commandment. It's not even recommended by God. In fact, the primary issue of this passage is not even divorce. It's not the primary issue at all. The primary issue is not divorce. The primary issue is not the certificate of issue. The primary issue is a man who does divorce his wife, she marries somebody else, he decides to get back with her and remarry her after she's been remarried the second time. And God says, "No way." "If a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him, because he finds something indecent about her and he writes her a certificate of divorce, no command given. He gives it to her and sends her from her house. And if, after she leaves his house, she becomes the wife of another man, and her second husband dislikes her and writes her a certificate of divorce," poor gal. I feel sorry for her, "gives it to her and sends her from his house, or if he dies, then her first husband, who divorced her, is not allowed." notice, "Then." There is the regulation. "Then her first husband, who divorced her, is not allowed to marry her again after she has been defiled. That would be detestable in the eyes of the Lord." The primary issue deals with the first husband trying to remarry his first wife after there's been a remarriage to another spouse. And second of all, Moses is simply showing that that kind of activity leads to adultery, even though a certificate, or a writing of divorcement is spoken about, it doesn't make it right. God is simply saying, "If it is done, then here's the regulation." So it's not excusing divorce, it's not encouraging divorce. It is the opposite. It is deterring people from getting a divorce by showing them the potential evil of divorce. That divorce leads to adultery. That's the premise of the 24th chapter of Deuteronomy.

Now, what does it mean in verse 1 for, "a woman who becomes displeasing to him, because he finds something indecent about her." What does it mean, something indecent? And this is where the controversy has come in over the past centuries. The literal Hebrew word is the nakedness of a thing. It's what it means. The nakedness of a thing. The Talmud of the Jews translates this, obnoxious. If he finds something obnoxious. It has to do with improper or impure behavior of a spouse. It has to do with improper or impure behavior of a spouse. It cannot refer to adultery. It can't refer to adultery, because what was the punishment for adultery in Israel? Stoning to death, not divorce. This could mean indecent exposure, it could mean, uh, flirting, it could mean some kind of obnoxious, improper behavior short of adultery and the man decides because of that to divorce his wife. But again, why the man divorced his wife in this case is not the issue. Because whatever was the reason that he gives her this bill of divorcement, it was for unbiblical, unlawful grounds, because notice verse 4, "Then her first husband, who divorced her, is not allowed to marry her again after she has been defiled." Now, why is she defiled? She's defiled because the husband himself put her away unlawfully and she becomes an adulteress because he put her away, she remarries, and because she remarries there's a defilement because of adultery. And this is a protection, not an endorsement, a protection against that woman, or for that woman- protecting her else her first husband would come along and think, "Gee, I'm gonna divorce Jane. I'm kind of tired of her and I found some kind of indecent, improper behavior. She's flirting with somebody. She's getting close to them. That's grounds for divorce. I'm gonna divorce her." God says she becomes defiled. And that guy says, "You know, I'm gonna divorce her and I like this other cute gal over here. But if it doesn't work out, I can always marry Jane again if she becomes available. If her husband dies, or maybe I can persuade her to come back to me." God says, "No you can't. Think twice before you get a divorce because if she remarries, there's no hope for you ever to reconcile. It is an abomination or detestable, for once she remarries for you to ever get back together again regardless of the circumstances." So it's a protection. Now at the time of Jesus, this was the most popular interpretation. In fact, according to the Targum of Israel, part of the law system at the time of Jesus, the Jews were taught that it was a commandment, according to Deut- uh Deuteronomy 24. A commandment for a husband to divorce his wife for almost any and every reason. See it was so widespread.

With that, now turn to Matthew Chapter 5, and we'll see what Jesus means by who is allowed to be divorced. Matthew, Chapter 5. The Sermon on the Mount. Lot of activity going on around the church, I would appreciate everyone remaining seated for the duration of the service. Matthew, Chapter 5. Now, of course we're gonna look at verse 31 and 32. But recognize that the whole purpose, folks, for the Sermon on the Mount, the whole reason Jesus gave this sermon was to destroy the system of self-righteousness that the Jewish leaders had placed themselves under, which seems to be the tendency of human beings anyway. When they see the law of God and the requirements of God, and they don't like to go the way of God and they think, "I don't wanna do what God says," they invent their own God, their own religious system, and they say, "No, that's not what is required. I'm gonna say what is required. This is what I must do. This is what I must accomplish." And then once they accomplish it, they pat themselves on the back for being good boys. In other words, they take the law of God, drag it down to the level where they can keep it, and then they're satisfied with the fact that they have kept it. Because they have misinterpreted what God said all along, they drag God's ideal and God's standard down to their level and they feel smug if they've kept it. In verse 20, Jesus says, "For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpass that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven." Which totally blew them out of the water. Because the most righteous people that walked the planet of Israel were the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. You couldn't be more righteous then they. Jesus said, "Now, you surpass their righteousness. They have drug the law of God down to an improper level." And so He sights several examples, many examples of how they've taken and fallen short of what God said. And verse 27 is an example, and there are many of them. "You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." Now verse 31, "It has been said," not by God, not by Deuteronomy 24. Is has been said by Rabbi Hillel, by Rabbi Akiva, by the Targum of Israel, by all of the teachers that have misinterpreted the law, that, "‘Anyone who divorces his wife must,'" as a commandment, "'give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress," that's pretty clear. "And anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery." "Your system," Jesus says, "has taught you that you can divorce for any and every reason." Jesus is saying, "I am here to set the record straight. You tolerate divorce for any and every reason," and they tolerated divorce and remarriage for anything. That was their system. The only thing that was required is that you had to be intelligent enough to sign your name. Fill out the paperwork. Once you can sign your name on the paperwork, that's the only requirement for divorce. Is you had to learn how to write well. So people were divorcing their wives rampantly and Jesus says, "But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife except for marital unfaithfulness." In other words, Jesus is saying, "I'm just the opposite. You tolerate it for any and every reason. I do not tolerate divorce for any and every reason at all. I am just the opposite." Jesus required much more than the Pharisees did, but He didn't require any more than Moses did. He's simply setting the record straight in view of their misinterpretation by the rabbis and the teachers that they were familiar with at that time. You see, this is what's happening. The leaders, many of the Jewish men and women, especially at this time the men because of the law system, were non-nonchalantly divorcing their wives, whimsically letting their wives go. Just dumping them. Then feeling smug and okay that they were not adulterers. And Jesus is saying, "Oh, yes you are adulterers. In fact, you are proliferating and spreading adultery all over the nation because of your divorce. Because, unless you divorce for any other reason except for marital unfaithfulness, you are spreading adultery everywhere. When you divorce and remarry, you're causing you spouse that you remarried to become an adulteress, you yourself are becoming an adulterer, you're causing your former wife who you let go for unbiblical grounds to become an adulteress and her husband to become an adulterer. You're spreading it all over the place." That's his point. He's reiterating what God intended from the beginning and the correct interpretation of the Old Testament regulation. Now, that's his highest. Divorce always, always, always involves adultery. And I'll show you why. This is Jesus' own words. The only grounds for divorce is adultery, so it involves it somehow. If there is a divorce for any reason expect adultery, the people involved become adulterers. Always leads or involves adultery. That's the teachings of Jesus Christ. That's the teaching of Paul in 1 Corinthians 7. Now he's saying this to the Jews, he's saying this to the leadership of Israel who felt smug that they were doing the right thing. Jesus says, "Okay folks. You feel smug. Here's God's ideal. This is it. Right here. No divorce for any reason except marital unfaithfulness. That's God's ideal. How do you match up to that?" That's the purpose of the Sermon on the Mount and his teaching here.

Now, I must immediately say something. That, although the only allowable reason, and it's allowable, it's permissible, it's not demanded, commanded, required, recommended, the permissible reason for divorce is because of marital unfaithfulness or adultery, there is a higher way, I believe. It's the way of forgiveness. It's the way of reconciliation. God never commanded you to do it. God says, "I recognize because of human sin that if a spouse commits adultery, the innocent party has that option. I recognize that sin can do that. And here is the divine concession to the human sin." But it is not a commandment. I believe God's highest, if you can do that, God's highest would be forgiveness. You see, since we know, folks, as Bible believing Christians, since we know God's ideal is permanent marriage, since we know the Gospel, what is the heart of the Gospel but forgiveness? 2 Corinthians says, "God has given to us, His Church, the ministry of reconciling people back to each other in relationships." That's the highest ideal. That's the way God did it. While we were yet sinners, and ungodly, Christ died for us. The same God who says, "I hate divorce," says, "I will forgive backsliding Israel for her adulteries." I believe that's God's highest, although God gives the concession and the permission for divorce based only upon adultery.
Now you might say, "Well, Skip, I think that's too high. I mean God can forgive in lieu of that, but He doesn't expect man to do it." Well, certainly He gave the person the out. Gave you the permission to divorce based on adultery, but please, let's close with this scripture. The book of Hosea, Chapter 3, and we're gonna see a passage as we close. Hosea, Chapter 3. If you can't find it, find the book of Daniel, turn immediately right, and you'll be right in the ballpark at the corner. Hosea, Chapter 3. Hosea was a man of God. He listened to the voice of God, and God said, "Hosea, I want you to go out and marry a harlot. Go out and marry a streetwalker, a whore." Which he did. You talk about gossip, folks, hmm, can you imagine the gossip that went around around Israel when he did that? Or the gossip that went around the streets as Gomer, who was the woman got married? "Hey, ladies, did you hear that Gomer got married? Can you believe it? And you wouldn't believe who she married. She married a preacher!" She's a streetwalker. He married her, he loved her. She left him, went back to the streets and had illegitimate children that is, other men's babies, in that marriage. In Chapter 3, "The Lord said to me, 'Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes." So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley. Then I told her, 'You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will live with you.'" Wow. Finally, turn to the 14th Chapter. Hosea, Chapter 14. This is God speaking to the nation whom He said, "I will write a bill of divorce to." He takes them back. He says, "Return, Israel, to the Lord your God. Your sins have been your downfall! Take words with you and return to the Lord. Say to him: 'Forgive all our sins, receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips.'" You see, there was repentance, and because of the repentance, God reconciled and forgave. Verse 4, "I will heal their waywardness

and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them. I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like a lily. Like a cedar of Lebanon he will send down his roots; his young shoots will grow. His splendor will be like an olive tree, and his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon. Men will dwell again in his shade; he will flourish like the grain, he will blossom like the vine," this speaks of total restoration. "And his fame will be like the wine from Lebanon. Oh Ephraim, what more have I to do with idols? I will answer him and care for him. I am like a green pine tree; your fruitfulness comes from me. Who is wise? He will realize these things. Who is discerning? He will understand them. The ways of the Lord are right; the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them." Many times I will often close with a story or an illustration or a poem. But I can't beat this. Hosea 14 says it better, God can say it better than anybody else. That kind of love and forgiveness.

Now, in closing, I recognize that at the end of this study, now, there are still people who are a bit troubled at this message. And I recognize that. There are people who are a little bit troubled because of what Jesus has said, what is obvious in the scripture, and especially those people who recognize, "I have really gone against God's will. I have sinned. I got an unscriptural divorce. It was unbiblical grounds. But I've already done it." And they feel guilty. I have good news for you. Your past, your past is totally forgiven if you want it to be. Totally forgiven. He will wipe away your sin. God said, "Their sins and their iniquities I will remember no more." You may have blown a marriage, you may have blown two marriages, I have watched people blow three marriages or four marriages. You think, "Now what?" Your past is all under the precious blood of Jesus Christ? Amen? That's what you need to see. You may have gotten yourself into such a fix. And you think, "Now what?" Now's the time for forgiveness. And you look at the past and maybe there's some things that can be undone, but there's some things that cannot be undone. Forget your past. Take hold of now and decide whatever you find out in your situation now, I'm going to obey God and please Him. God will never forsake you. God will love you and God will take you from this point and He'll take you to the highest level you let Him. Let's pray.

Our heavenly Father,
We are amazed at Your love. How you said I will heal them. They have repented, I will forgive them, and he that is wise will understand these things and he who is not will stumble at them. Lord, help us to be not ones who stumble at Your word, because we would be unwise, but help us to be wise, realizing Your ideal and living according to Your ideal with power of the Holy Spirit. I recognize it and there's just really no way to fulfill Your requirements unless You empower us to do so. And thank You that You never give us requirements or regulations or restrictions expect that they are for our own good. And then you give us the power to fulfill them, Lord. That's what's so great about serving You. Heal, Father, people who are contemplating a divorce. Lord, I pray that they will see that it's not the highest. Lord, there is that concession. But father I pray that there would be a spirit of forgiveness that would sweep our land, sweep our church and all the relationships involved. We wanna start fresh with you, Lord. We wanna be devoted in obedience to You. In Jesus name. Amen.